About one third of Europe´s population is living the rural areas and half of the rural territory is close to regional hub cities. This is the context where the URBACT Action Planning Network ECONNECTING gets active: we seek to establish strategies and actions for those rural-urban functional areas, fostering the integration of urban sustainable development, well-being, and robust social connections with active citizen participation. The initiative will engage nine European cities from distinct countries in collaborative efforts to shape their "proximity territories." Through a cooperative planning process, ECONNECTING aims to harmonize those urban and rural dynamics while prioritizing on mobility and accessibility of those areas, create vibrant public spaces for the people, all based on environmental consciousness and community engagement.

Challenges and Opportunities for Rural Development

The development of rural areas in the European Union poses a complex challenge, as highlighted by the Rural Vision set by the European Commission. While these territories are characterized by their natural beauty and strong communities, they grapple with various obstacles. With over 341 million hectares, constituting 83% of the total EU area, rural areas encompass agricultural land, forests, and natural spaces. Despite their significant contribution, they face demographic challenges, marked by an aging population, with the lowest shares below 50 years. Moreover, rural areas confront a heightened risk of poverty and social exclusion, surpassing urban counterparts. Although the employment rate has risen, the increase is attributed to a decrease in the rural active population, underscoring the need for sustainable job creation. Gender disparities persist, with a notable employment gap between men and women, and having the women trapped with the caring activities with no access to jobs because of lacking caring facilities. Additionally, there is a growing disparity in education, as the share of tertiary-educated individuals in rural areas lags behind cities, exacerbating the urban-rural educational divide. Furthermore, rural residents trail in basic digital skills, emphasizing the necessity for comprehensive development strategies to bridge these gaps and ensure the holistic progress of rural regions in the EU.

Insights from ECONNECTING's Baseline Study Visits

Over the past six months, we embarked on a comprehensive journey to visit every project partner affiliated with ECONNECTING. This tour-de-force led us to diverse and often remote cities and village locations in Montenegro, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Slovenia and Hungary, each emblematic of the challenges stemming from inadequate public transportation services, compounded by the proximity of a central hub city. The on-site visits illuminated a multitude of shared challenges among our partners, emphasizing the imperative for holistic and collaborative solutions. Car dependency, inadequate public transportation networks, and a prevailing car culture dominate the urban and rural landscapes. The lack of safe cycling and pedestrian infrastructure further hinders alternative modes of transportation, contributing to the connectivity challenges between suburban and rural settlements. The dispersed population and settlements exacerbate these issues, creating unequal access to services in rural communities and fostering a sense of isolation. A common objective among the partners is to address these challenges by implementing and enhancing green public transport infrastructure, improving cycling and pedestrian pathways, and promoting active mobility. Additionally, there is a shared commitment to raising awareness, improving connectivity between urban centers and rural settlements, ensuring equal access to services, developing innovative mobility solutions, and creating appealing and accessible public spaces. Through concerted efforts, the ECONNECTING partners aim to overcome these challenges, achieve shared objectives, and address common learning needs to foster a more sustainable mobility behavior and enable a more inclusive urban and rural development.

Our hypothesis for bridging these gaps involves the establishment of accessible regional hubs designed to serve rural areas, fostering connections through sustainable mobility solutions.

In the project initiation phase, we pinpointed four crucial topics that now serve as our guiding pillars: a) the 30-minutes Territories, b) Accessible and Welcoming Cities, c) Green Community and d) Good Governance. These constant discussions around these themes facilitate an integrated, multisectoral planning approach. This ongoing dialogue not only refines our strategies but also promotes a holistic perspective, fostering adaptability and innovation within our Action Planning Network. By consistently addressing these key topics, we establish a resilient framework that enables us to navigate challenges and capitalize on opportunities effectively. This integrative approach ensures the sustained success and coherence of our project initiatives.

A Dialogue-Oriented Approach to Integrated Action Plans

The innovative planning process within the ECONNECTING project is characterized by a dialogue-oriented approach, ultimately guiding the development of Integrated Action Plans. This process adheres to the URBACT methodology, a framework founded on participatory tools and co-creation methodologies that actively involve a diverse array of stakeholders in the planning process.

By fostering collaboration and inclusivity, the methodology ensures that the perspectives and needs of various stakeholders, including local communities and authorities, are taken into account. The planning process embraces experimentation and testing of novel tools, seeking to explore the efficacy of transit-oriented development within the context of rural-urban linkages. This approach enables the project to adapt and refine strategies based on real-world experimentation. Moreover, the planning integrates mobility planning with urban planning and strategic management, fostering synergy between these domains. This holistic approach not only enhances the efficiency of the planning process but also facilitates the expedited implementation of crucial investments for the ECONNECTING partner cities, ensuring a swift and comprehensive approach to sustainable urban and rural development.

More and more people, today, suffer from social isolation. True isolation (not a desired break from family and friends). The World Health Organization, in November 2023, just decided to launch a special international Commission on Social Isolation and Loneliness, because: ‘Anyone, anywhere, can be lonely or socially isolated. Across all ages and regions, loneliness and social isolation have serious impacts on our physical and mental health, and the well-being of our communities and society [...] Social isolation and loneliness are widespread, with an estimated 1 in 4 older people experiencing social isolation and between 5 and 15 per cent of adolescents experiencing loneliness [...]’. Not only more and more people suffer from social isolation, but they also experience it in all age groups. And numbers are rapidly growing. Some describe social isolation as a growing ‘silent epidemic’.

But, what do we really mean by ‘social isolation’ ? Well, social isolation is a situation in which a person suffers from a long term deficiency of social relations, both in terms of quantity and quality. This definition is key because it highlights the fact that the isolated person is in a situation of suffering (it’s not an enjoyable situation), due to a long term lack of relations (we are talking about months and years), in terms of quantity (the number of social interactions you have, ranging from a phone call with your family, a drink with a friend, or a chat with your neighbour or postman) and quality (who do you care for and cares for you, who can you count on, who do you trust to share your problems/feelings with, etc.). A person who suffers from isolation has, basically, near to no social relation, whatsoever, or at least none that are really fulfilling or satisfying. You are alone. Desperately alone.

Jean Dionis, the Mayor of the City of Agen (France), lead partner city of the Breaking Isolation network, told the founding story of this network to all cities partners on the day of the Kick-off meeting :

In Agen, on December 2020, there was a terrible event. One that deeply shocked the mayor of Agen. A woman, age 68, was found dead in her apartment after 2 years. She lived 200 meters away from the City Hall. Dead for 2 years. No one noticing or reporting her death. No family, no friend, no neighbour, no administration, no medical staff, no one who realized they had no news from that woman.

This short story profoundly shocked the mayor and convinced him that cities needed to take action against social isolation and loneliness. The City of Agen (former lead partner of a previous network on citizen participation called Active Citizens), decided to launch an URBACT network on this topic of social isolation : Breaking Isolation.

After publishing the concept note on the URBACT page, the city of Agen received over 30 applications from cities all over Europe willing to join their network on social isolation, proving the importance of the topic. The City of Agen, decided to prioritize cities of similar sizes, meaning small and/or medium sized cities. In the end, the Breaking Isolation network was formed and got approved, with 10 cities in 10 EU countries!

The Breaking Isolation network is composed of: the City of Agen in France, the Municipality of Bijelo Polje in Montenegro, the City of Fót in Hungary, the City of Isernia in Italy, the Municipality of Jumilla in Spain, the Municipality of Pombal in Portugal, the Municipality of Roman in Romania, the Municipality of Serres in Greece, the City of Skofja Loka in Slovenia, and the Municipality of Tønder in Danemark.

The literature review conducted for the baseline study, reveal the gravity of social isolation:

• - Social isolation increases the risk of developing dementia by 40 to 50%
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• - Social isolation increases the risk of early death by 25% (which is comparable to tobacco consumption or alcohol consumption – there are national awareness-raising campaigns against tobacco and alcohol but none about social isolation –)
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• - Social isolation increases the risk of heart stroke and cardiovascular disease by 30% (due to the benefits of social interactions both psychologically and physically on stress reduction, lower blood pressure, etc.).

The study visits throughout the network cities also show that:

- People living in urban centers tend to be more easily isolated than those living in smaller villages (as people know each other more because of very little population)

- People suffering from social isolation often combine multiple factors of isolation:  death of a loved one (or couple break up), unemployment/retirement, mental health issues, physical impairments/disabilities, poverty, domestic violence, living remotely (away from family and friends), addictive use of social media, addictions to drugs/alcohol/gambling and the lack of social skills

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• - People suffering from social isolation don’t necessarily identify themselves as socially isolated and easily enter a vicious circle : indeed they often deny their situation (because of shame) and tend to convince themselves (and sometimes people around them) that their isolation is actually their choice, that they’ve decided to isolate and stop socializing. The problem is, then, that the less a person socializes, the less the person is able to trust social relations. This leads to a growing distrust towards everyone, even sometimes familiar/close relatives. And, inevitably, this reinforces even more the isolation of the person. Sometimes, this situation makes the isolated people become more and more ‘sour’ or ‘cantankerous’ when interacting with others, leading again to more isolation.
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• - Isolated people tend to shut off: they stop letting anyone step inside their home, close their curtains and/or shutters of their home, don’t engage with anyone stranger to them, etc.

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- And finally, isolated people tend to let go of their own self-care : Neglecting personal hygiene, neglecting their home (accumulating mess, reduced cleaning), neglecting their health (stop going to the doctor, not doing medical check-ups), neglecting healthy food habits (proper nutrition, weight excessive loss or gain), etc.

The study visits, the literature review, the World Health Organization’s decision to launch a dedicated Commission on social isolation, everything confirms the importance of the challenge of the Breaking Isolation network. As Julianne Holt-Lundstad and her co-researchers [1]conclude: ‘Social relationship–based interventions represent a major opportunity to enhance not only the quality of life but also survival.’

We need to socialize more, to share more, to care more. We need to reinforce social ties, to make sure no one is left out, alone, in the dark. And to do so, we need to explore all possibilities, all tools, all enabling policies...

Opening up new public services? Developing new social policies? Stimulating citizen-based community support? Enhancing peer-to-peer solidarity? Rethinking urban planning to support socialization? Installing new collective social practices? Creating new digital leverage to provoke local social relations? The Breaking Isolation network will have two years to explore the best ways to break isolation, so, stay tuned… and connected.

What is One Health and why is it important in cities?

"One Health" is an approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of human health, animal health, and environmental health. The interactions between people, animals, plants and our environment have changed in many ways in the past years (increased travels, emerging diseases, extreme weather). One Health analyses these three components and how they behave when they interact. It recognizes that it is impossible to take care of one aspect without taking care of the others. One Health has become more important in recent years due mainly to the COVID 19 crisis. 

This approach emphasizes the need of collaboration, cooperation, capacity building and communication across multiple disciplines (including human health, veterinary medicine, environmental science, social sciences and more), to address complex health issues.

One Health is imperative for cities, given the unique challenges they face – dense populations, pollution, close human-animal interaction, shared environmental spaces, heat waves, invasive species – and their role in the biodiversity crisis and their adaptation to climate change impacts. In such context, it is crucial for cities to implement the One Health approach as a preventive strategy. It will increase the benefits and mitigate the negative impacts of this evolving context on the well-being and health of the living beings.

As analysed by WHO, ‘cities are central actors for the implementation of One Health thanks to their characteristics of action. They are a key actor of the diagnosis of the health needs and inequalities among their population. They are implementing health prevention policies on the field, they are in charge of hygiene on their territory, and lead the urban policies to organize public spaces’.

One Health 4 Cities Mission

One Health in urban environments is an immense topic to handle, involving different disciplines, priorities, strategies, policies, etc.

The Network One Health 4 Cities will navigate through these challenges and find ways to make meaningful actions locally but also develop knowledge for more cities to explore how to integrate One Health in their contexts. Through collaboration and shared insights, the Network aims to pave the way for a collective and informed approach to integrating One Health practices, fostering healthier and more sustainable urban environments and communities.

The Network will work on how to integrate One Health horizontally into different disciplines experimenting its concrete implementation on specific thematic including: healthy lifestyles, active ageing, green prescribing, and nature connectedness, healthy urban planning, and biodiversity. The complexity of the approach requires also from the Network to look into topics of stakeholder engagement, monitoring, funding and policy integration.

To do so, the Network will also embark on the mission to integrate One health on the health impact assessment methodology, develop some easy-to-use tools and guidance on the novel 3 Healths Impact Assessment.

Through local testing, the Network will pilot and compare different methods to identify working solutions and potential synergies between topics. Regular meetings and working sessions will facilitate the sharing of results, enabling the identification of actions beneficial to cities of a variety in sizes, climates, and governance structures. All knowledge development and exchanges will fuse the URBACT’s proven methods and tools to achieve better results.

The overarching goal is that each city will develop a specific Integrated Action Plan with a unique focus, all aimed at implementing the One Health approach as one of the responses of the diverse challenges they are facing.

The One Health 4 Cities Network is co-funded by URBACT.

European youth spend much of their time online

With the rise of digitalisation, youth spend much of their time online, mostly in communities on social media like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok or gaming platforms such as PlayStation, Discord and Twitch. Therefore, young people spend less time outside and in physical places like youth centres. According to the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Knowledge Gateway data (2021), the percentage of teenagers spending more than 2 hours on screens at the age of 11 is between 43-67% for males and 30-66% for females. At 15, these numbers are even higher: 53-71% for males and 50-75 for females. According to estimates, young adults spend, on average, 6-7 hours per day on screens. This phenomenon was amplified during the Covid-19 outbreak when researchers saw screen time almost double during lockdowns. They suggested that screen time may decline post-covid, but not to the level we saw before. In short, the trend of spending more time online is here to stay.
The fact that youth spend an increasing part of their time online and, therefore, less in physical public spaces also means that they need to be reached in the digital sphere and need digital counselling and information. The demand for digital youth work is exceptionally high among youth who experience social isolation, loneliness, anxiety, stress, depression, and digital or gaming addiction. Because of their social anxiety or less-developed social skills, they may experience many mental and physical obstacles when reaching out to youth workers or other professionals in the physical world, such as youth centres and schools.

Youth workers need to reach youth online and support to do so

Youth workers are aware of behavioural change among youth and look for ways to better adapt to this phenomenon, thus using digital youth work. They want to be able to reach their target groups online and offline. However, this is challenging as it requires changes to how they work. Youth workers can use the key social media and gaming platforms to be accessible to 'their' young people, interact with them online, or promote their offline activities. In reality, most youth workers are reactive on these platforms; only a minority offer online services and create content more effectively. 
Most youth workers need more insight into the online living environment of young people. They need to know the roles social media offers young people and what growing up in a digital environment requires regarding guidance. Nevertheless, there are many reasons for not tapping into the potential of digital youth work yet. These reasons range from a lack of funding from public authorities to a lack of education for youth workers. This leaves a gap between young people's needs and youth workers' professional development that requires to be bridged.
Plenty of tools in digital youth work need to be taken advantage of, such as providing platforms for peer-to-peer discussion on a diversity of themes, using gaming for training and learning, and reaching out to youth who are more challenging to reach offline. Moreover, digital youth work can address many areas relevant to youth, not only mental health issues. Digital tools provide an excellent opportunity for non-formal and informal learning about various specific skills and general topics, such as training, employment, mobility, gender equality and diversity, financial literacy and sexual education. Digital environments support community engagement and social and political participation. There are tools to improve low-threshold access to care or help and have an accessible way to contact professionals.

Youth and the digital transition are at the forefront of European policies

Youth work has developed differently across Europe for historical, social, cultural and economic reasons. These differences are further nuanced by digital divergences within the EU. However, both youth work and the digital transition are at the forefront of European policies and represent a vital backstop for the development of the field. The European Commission formulated the European Youth Strategy to engage, connect and empower young people in 2018. and published the agenda of Shaping Europe's digital future in 2020, focusing on digital transformation for the benefit of people and an open, democratic and sustainable society. And finally, 2022 was the European Year of Youth, putting youth at the forefront and shining a light on its importance in building a better – greener, more inclusive and digital – future.

NextGen YouthWork helps cities address digital youth work at a strategic policy level

These policy developments provide significant support to European cities to address digital youth work challenges. In addition, the URBACT programme, through the NextGen YouthWork network, will provide tangible, concrete support to 10 European cities to address this challenge and develop a hybrid and sustainable future for youth work at a strategic policy level. Eindhoven, Aarhus, Cartagena, Iași, Klaipėda, Oulu, Perugia, Tetovo, Veszprém and Viladecans will share their best practices and experiences and engage, connect and empower young people. And there are plenty of inspiring practices! Some cities succeeded by transitioning offline youth work tools to the online environment. Others excel at using gaming to engage with youth or even developing new tools for the digital environment. There are good examples of implementing digital shifts at the local level, as well as of pooling resources and knowledge at the regional or national level to ease the financial burden of going digital. Cities often initiate new tools, but grassroots initiatives by youth are also notable examples.

Are you passionate about empowering the next generation and creating a better future? Stay up to date with NextGen YouthWork cities to learn about truly inspiring practices in youth work!

As small cities, EcoCore partners face a particular set of challenges when it comes to transitioning to  a green economy including for example access to finance, brain drain and infrastructural barriers. Other challenges include lack of critical mass, resistance to change and limited policy support. What sets EcoCore cities apart however is their location within strategic transport corridors – close to airports, ports, strategically important railway lines and motorways. This aspect places them at a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting industry. In addition, as small cities they have the opportunity of being closer to stakeholders on the ground and this advantage can be used to build a solid foundation for success.

The foremost challenge for EcoCore cities however will be to future proof their economic development plans and set conditions in place to ensure that they become the location of choice for new green businesses while supporting existing businesses in the green transition process. A powerful transition catalyst will be critical in achieving this aim. Working in an integrated manner with stakeholders from across sectors, at multiple levels and across boundaries, taking into account hard and soft investment requirements will be an essential ingredient for success. 

This was the focus of discussions during an intense two day gathering of partners in the town of Balbriggan – home to lead partner Fingal County Council (Dublin). EcoCore partners from Dubrovnik, Ormož, Alba Iulia, Kekava, Santo Tirso, Pärnu, Villena and Tuusula joined Fingal County Council on 21st and 22nd November to reflect on the green transition challenges and opportunities in each of the partner cities, to agree the network work plan for the next two years and to peer review some of the EcoCore related activities and plans in Balbriggan.
 

Partners visited Balbriggan’s industrial zones, saw how the local team are rolling out active travel initiatives including behavioural change programmes in tandem with sustainable mobility infrastructure. They learned about Fingal County Council’s role in facilitating collaboration between businesses and education via their innovative skills strategy. Partners also reflected on the municipality’s role in a cross border strategic regional economic corridor strategy, their supports for women in enterprise and their citizen centred smart city initiatives promoting the green transition. 

This meeting sets the tone for the network’s exchange and learning activities over the next two years. EcoCore’s tailor-made programme of transnational exchange and learning for partners and their stakeholders is aimed not only at overcoming barriers to the green transition in these small cities and towns but at positioning them as magnetic hubs of green economic development.  

Throughout the activation phase partners have reflected on the  role of municipalities in enabling the green industrial transition and have identified five key transition drivers on which to focus their attention. These include:  

-    Planning & Development for Green Industrial Transition  
-    Developing and nurturing the Innovation Ecosystem in support of the Green Transition 
-    The Municipality as Green Transition leader 
-    Supporting the Green Transition skills pipeline 
-    Branding and Marketing 

These overarching themes will provide the framework for the exchange and learning programme over the next two years with study visits to each of the partner cities where practical examples of these transition drivers in action will be showcased and peer reviewed. The learning and exchange programme will be complemented by a series of online masterclasses focussing on topics such as funding and investment for small cities, CSRD and what it means for the green transition in businesses and cities, cleantech enabling the green transition and more. Partners will also showcase their work on the URBACT cross cutting themes of gender equality and the digital transition in a green transition context. The aim will be to build capacity on these topics, build momentum and inspire partner cities and their stakeholders to co-design related actions.

EcoCore partners want to harness the green transition to better integrate industry within society and the environment through shared value opportunities, improved ecosystems and urban fabric and innovative pathways for sustainable place-making.

The ultimate objective is to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, address climate change, limit environmental damage, and encourage the efficient utilization of resources. The goal is to create a more sustainable economy in partner cities that benefits both people and the planet. 

By embracing the green industrial transition and through a partnership approach, EcoCore believes that cities and businesses can position themselves as front-running innovators, in the global effort to combat climate change and create a more sustainable future while offering a high-quality, attractive living and working environment for residents.

Watch this space!
 

The Gender Equality Index for the EU-27 2022. Progress in EIGE’s gender equality index has slowed since 2019 and progress has been very mixed across the EU-27. Source: EIGE. 2022. Gender Equality Index 2022: The COVID-19 pandemic and care. p. 20. Available at: https://eige.europa.eu/publications-resources/publications/gender-equality-index-2022-covid-19-pandemic-and-care. Accessed on 18 October 2023.

The fact is that while all 27 member states have enacted federal laws to translate the principle of gender equality into their national law, implementation on a local level remains uneven and tends to favour certain topics, despite the fact that women continue to experience urban spaces, public services, the labour market, education and training and even health provision in Europe differently than men.

Despite nearly a quarter century of policy, the role of gender equality as a cross-cutting topic which is vital to all policy areas remains poorly understood. A handful of cities and regions, for example Vienna (AT), Barcelona (ES), Umeå (SE) and the Basque country (ES), have made a concerted point of focusing on the role of gender in urban and regional development and have worked to push policy innovation and new approaches, including in sectors which were previously not considered relevant. However, the reality for many more municipalities, intermunicipal areas and regional authorities in Europe is that their work on gender equality implementation is hampered by knowledge and data gaps, lack of dedicated personnel, lack of awareness, lack of political support and both active and passive resistance.

For gender equality to become a reality in European cities and regions, it is therefore critical not only to work across sectors and with a variety of stakeholders, but also to work on awareness, acceptance and training within the municipality or organisation itself, identifying and actively combatting stereotypes and raising awareness and allyship among men, who are all too frequently missing from the conversation. Networking and peer learning between municipalities can help transfer knowledge and effective practices, and increase the effectiveness of those working on this topic and the policies they develop.

Against this backdrop, the URBACT FEMACT-Cities Action Planning Network seeks to increase innovation and knowledge sharing in gender equality in four thematic clusters shared by the partners: urban development, labour market and training and health and safety, flanked by internal and structural gender mainstreaming in the partner organisations. Four cross-cutting topics – stereotypes, urban/rural differences, intersectional identities and the role of men – will accompany this work. The goal of the network is to create cities and regions in which all residents, irrespective of gender, can experience freedom of movement, freedom from violence, freedom from fear, freedom to pursue their dreams, and freedom to reach their full potential.

To do this, the eight partners (Länsstyrelsen Skåne (SE), Comunidade Intermunicipal da Região de Coimbra (PT), Clermont-Auvergne Métropole (FR), Kraków (PL), City of Turin (IT), Municipality of Postojna (SI), Cluj Metropolitan Area Intercommunity Development Association (RO), and Szabolcs 05 Regional Development Association of Municipalities (HU)) will embark on a two-year journey of learning, sharing and testing in order to create integrated action plans for their local policy challenges.

This network will tackle topics never before addressed in an URBACT network, including gender-based violence, women‘s health issues, and gendered approaches to mobility planning. If you want to read more about the state of gender equality in Europe and how the FEMACT-Cities partners plan to tackle it, check out our baseline study.

And to learn more about URBACT‘s work on gender equality and how it affects your sector, check out the Gender Equal Cities report, which is packed with case studies and helpful tools and methods.

Photo by Christian Lue

When I accepted the role of Lead Expert for the METACITY network, I was as convinced as all the city partners that the fast development we are witnessing in digital transformation would radically change the way cities are planned, developed, and even lived in. But metaverse? Isn’t that science-fiction?

Then the city visits started and the very first one was to Härnosänd, a small town in the north of Sweden with about 17K inhabitants. Small, yes, but we all know that Swedes don’t mess around when it comes to technology adoption, so the expectations were high - and I must tell were fully fulfilled. The municipality urban planning already has access to a state-of-the-art Digital Twin that replicates the whole city in a screen and allows to visualize projected new buildings, streets and other planned work and that it is as useful as it sounds. See it, play with it a while and think “how is it still possible to measure the impact of new buildings without it”? Impressive, but it’s not, or not just, the future we want to design with METACITY which planned actions will start being implemented only 3 years’ from now and will produce impacts only around 2030. It’s not the medium-term future, it’s much more the present even if not yet for all – or even for most – cities.

So, I asked for a glimpse of the real future and they were so kind as to show me. I was taken to the Virtual Reality company of the Municipality where the future is now being designed and I had the chance to test the tools that are being used for implementing the city’s main new projects. A new elderly centre is now being constructed, and I could put on a Virtual Reality (VR) headset and visit it. I walked around the outside garden (actually I was just walking around the room, but the simulation was pretty convincing), entered through the main entrance and then into some of the rooms – just like the new staff that will work in the centre and that is already being trained on their future jobs using these very same simulation tools for the operation of the future facilities. A second major project on the cards for Härnosänd is the construction of a new hotel on the city’s riverfront – in what is now a green park area – and that can address one of the city’s main challenges which is the lack of suitable hospitality offers.  The project is not without a certain degree of local controversy – as all major projects are – due mostly to its size and its location. But being given the opportunity to visit it virtually – again with the “magic” VR headset and the right software running – was certainly enlightening to me in terms of understanding its future impact and coherence in the landscape and it can certainly be the same for local citizens which will be invited to come and see for themselves as part of the on-going public discussion on the project.

So, is this the future of urban planning? Well yes, or partly, or maybe no, not just that, as there must be much more to it to come within the next couple of years. “Walking” virtually around and inside Härnosänd future developments was certainly impressive, and felt almost like real, but the premises of the metaverse are well beyond that. Not just feeling close to reality, but feeling a different, alternative reality. And that was what I experienced next, when close to the end of the visit the guys at the VR company decided to give me a stronger taste of things to come. So they laid a wooden plank on the room floor and charged a professional VR game on their servers that, once you place the headset on, and with the help of the right sound effect and of the wind blowing from a maliciously placed fan, puts you right there, out of a lift and in the verge of walking the thin plank some 200 meters above floor level. And yes, the elderly care building and the hotel were impressive enough, but your brain was always aware that this was not really reality. But in this plank game, and while part of my brain knew quite well that the plank was standing in the room floor only 5 cm high, the other part was screaming “sorry, but that is not what I am seeing and feeling” and in self-preservation refused to allow my feet to move. It was not only impressive, it was real, and I am not ashamed to say that this part of my brain took the best part over the logical side, and that I - a logical, rationale man, as I like to think – was unable to do a single step over a plank some centimeters above the room floor. This ‘alternative reality’, with its professionally designed graphics and the (still) expensive processing and simulation equipment, is the future that the metaverse brings, now available only to some but soon to be available to everyone from everywhere at anytime. An alternative reality as real as real life, where you can attend meetings, use public services or visualize new construction projects as if they were real – which they are, in a certain way, as your brain will tell you.

The city of Härnosänd now plans to merge its Digital Twin with this full immersive virtual reality experience, in a new lab to be opened in the city’s public library and open to everyone that wants to experience the city future, and will use the METACITY planning phase to develop this concept. Other cities in the network are also looking at similar concepts, as they are to Digital Twins, to enhanced physical infrastructure that can support these new developments or – and equally important – to the legal and ethics possible consequences of this ‘brave new world’ and what it may imply for Urban Planners. Because, believe me, it is enthusiastic, but it can also be scary. Try the plank and see for yourself!

Municipality of Rethymno organized the “Ready for Action! Meeting”, on November 15th-16th in Rethymno Crete. The Lead Expert in collaboration with the Lead Partner presented their experience and results of the study visits and the partnership had the opportunity to discuss the results to define the Baseline Study and to create the essentials of the network roadmap: network-level exchange & learning, methodological frameworks to it, and local activities derived out of it. The main conclusions for the SCHOOLHOODs work programme are to address perceptions and habits of parents when driving their children to school and accompany this central challenge with improvements at the side of traffic infrastructure and mobility services other than private car use. During the meeting the LP outlined the communication plan and defined work steps for its joint elaboration.

• The Greater Paris Metropolis, France
• The City of Cesena, Italy
• The City of Granada, Spain 
• The City of Osijek, Croatia
• Amfiktyonies, a business development organization representing the City of Lamia, Greece
• The City of Celje, Slovenia
• The City of Fleurus, Belgium
• The City of Sligo, Ireland
• The Krakow Metropolis Association, Poland
• The Quadrilátero Urbano Association, Portugal

El pasado 17 de octubre celebramos un doble encuentro de los beneficiarios españoles de la última convocatoria de Action Planning Networks en el marco del II Foro Urbano de Granada.

A continuación, se incluye un vídeo resumen de la jornada: